MAL Ep. 24
Busy session today: 1) After a certain amount of animated discussion on how best to avoid being turned into flambe, Zadkiel went to talk with Threndix, giving him information about the League of Snakes and the party's efforts to thwart them. With Zadkiel swearing a Draconic oath not to cause harm to Threndix as suggested by Jon, the firedrake seemed satisfied and allowed him to leave alive to go bother the League of Snakes further. Zadkiel also told him about the vendetta of the Aquan river god and Chavalk's plan to send the Hidden Ones after the Order of the Dragon, which gave Threndix pause. 2) The group went to investigate the Temple of Sesharet. After discussing the tense social situation with some sailors and dockworkers in some local bars, the group talked the rather guarded acting priestess Mayalei into letting them in to investigate Ander's disappearance, withholding from her the information that they had fought against a priest they believe to be Ander in the cult of Corrigar. She let them into Ander's office, where Zadkiel found a secret compartment behind a plaque with a tree design on it that looked suspiciously like a fish skeleton design when rotated 90 degrees. The compartment contained a magic mirror, a nonmagical potion, and a key. Red didn't succeed at analyzing the potion. Mayalei said the mirror was a religious artifact of the temple and refused to elaborate, but she didn't know what the potion or key were and allowed the party to take them for further analysis. As they were leaving, one of the priests who had seemed more disturbed by the conversation than the others, named Renner, caught Red's eye before turning away. Not clear whether this was plot related or an awkward pass... 3) The party brought the potion to Vanessa the apothecary to be analyzed. Jon tried to surreptitiously mark the flask by getting his fingerprints on it, and Red took a trace amount in an eyedropper. Vanessa seemed patronizingly amused by your attempts at paranoia, and told you the analysis results should be ready in an hour. She also told Aler Naruah had left an address for their meeting this afternoon: a magic boutique named Tonoki's House of Enchantments. 4) Aler brought the party with him to the meeting. Naruah asked him point-blank what was going on with Petros' execution, and Aler kept his word to the Mayor and didn't tell him about the ruse. Naruah discussed a few other topics, of which the most important was the fact that the Eye of the Night had examined the gate sigil Khirg had been carrying around, determined that it was fey in origin (as Jon had already surmised,) and traced the magical signature to one by the name of "Lann Lasanta." Jon recognized this as a name meaning "flashing blade" in Fey. The players recalled having heard the name "Lasanta" before, ultimately remembering that the elves identified it as the name of a leader of the Invasion (either another name for Chavalk, or one of his allies.) The party wondered whether this might be the same person as Shyra. Red sent a letter to the elven diplomat she had spoken to earlier, informing him of this connection. 5) Tisha taught Jon the technique of traveling to the Ethereal Plane and how to move about therein. She chose a location near Petros' apartment in hopes of catching any information about Harasket, who the party's narrative made her suspect might have entered his rooms to plant his evidence ethereally. She did not find any evidence there to support that theory, although she acknowledged it was a long shot for any evidence to still be present in the shifting planescape of the ethereal plane after three weeks. The two of them were, however, approached by an ethergaunt, which told Jon "Balances are being upset. We hold something that does not belong to us. You must return it. We do not wish to take sides in this." It gave Jon a small amber lantern, which he took with gloved hands, and told him "Go through and reclaim it." Tisha identified the lantern as a magical planar gate of ethereal origin. Jon was able to find some catches at the bottom of each amber panel which he believes activate its magic. 6) Meanwhile the rest of the party went to the compound of the King of Clocks to speak with him. As they crossed his courtyard, they triggered some spike traps and were attacked by mechanical pit bulls. The party was well on their way to wrecking these enemies when two large walkers blasted the crap out of Red's T.Rex form and demanded their surrender. The King of Clocks came out to parlay. He was aware that the party had been the ones to, as he saw it, break into his warehouse in Ruastin and steal his magical teletype machine. He was unimpressed by their claims to be there to return the stolen item, since they had unfortunately left it with Jarth and therefore didn't have it. The King of Clocks denied any plans to attack the Duchy of Peraine or the Kingdom of Cloudwatch, nor did he recognize Chavalk's name, but he acknowledged plotting with Harasket and the Keres to overthrow the oppressive government of Averdale, which he judged to be not the PC's business. Red suggested an alternate plan to prove the worth of machines to the Averdale theocracy, at which point the King of Clocks said the theocracy didn't have any problem with machines and revealed himself as the human son of the former High Mage of Averdale, wearing some sort of bio-armor. His name is Kevin, and with his parents jailed and his would-be career as a mage ended in childhood by the theocracy of Averdale, he has become a technologist instead-- a "high-tech terrorist," as he bluntly puts it. He acknowledged that he was trading weapons to Harasket in exchange for help overthrowing the Queen of Averdale, but still felt that was pretty much a wash for you guys, as it would also mean taking the Keres out of the fight Peraine. Red made the argument this path could have more destructive results than he realized, which he seemed unhappy with, and then Adriel suggested the party could help overthrow the government of Averdale if the King of Clocks would join them against Chavalk now. Kevin said if they convened a meeting of the forces aligning against Harasket's group, he would attend and see whether they could work something out. Jarth came jogging over from the Cartographer's Guild to return the stolen typewriter. 7) With Jon and Tisha returned, the group paid a visit to Lady Aldrayeth, telling her what had transpired with Threndix and asking for help identifying the amber lantern Jon had received. She agreed with Tisha that it is a planar gate device leading through the ethereal plane--possibly to a demiplane/pocket dimension embedded there--and also agreed with Jon that it was activated by the catches beneath the amber panels. Aldrayeth activated each of these catches herself, and the lantern grew to gazebo-like proportions. Khirg remembered a letter that Tanya had sent him, which he had already shared with Red, telling him a Dullahan prophecy that his people would be routed and destroyed if things continue as they are now, and that he must "find what's beyond the amber door." Tisha hypothesized that the item Tanya wants to find may be the same one the ethergaunts are trying to unload, and wondered whether this might be related to Petros' house and Harasket's intrusion there after all, since the ethergaunt found them at that particular place. And there we left off for the day, with the party discussing whether and how to go through the amber door. (Aldrayeth agreed to let you use the Wizard's Guild as a staging point for this lantern/capsule in exchange for telling her the details of what you find on the other side when you return.) Onward, Laura